


Rumspringa, but for Ants

by burritomistress



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ants, Gen, M/M, why is that already a tag and how many other ant au's already exist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 22:19:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11472810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burritomistress/pseuds/burritomistress
Summary: Derek’s never spent so much as a minute not within walking distance of fatherly advice or a little tough love from his siblings and now he’s expected to spend an entire moon cycle away from them. He doesn’t know how he’ll cope but he’s excited to say the least.





	Rumspringa, but for Ants

**Author's Note:**

> I've been out of this fandom for literal years at this point, but I saw the 6B trailer yesterday and lost my mind, you know, as one does, and decided to look through all the old fic that I wrote and I found this one and I thought I posted it but apparently not. So here, my crowning glory and the only important thing I've ever done in my life - the ant AU you probably never wanted.

It’s Derek’s first time ever leaving the farm, ever seeing the big city that he’s heard so much about from his older sister Laura, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous as hell. He’s never spent so much as a minute not within walking distance of fatherly advice or a little tough love from his siblings and now he’s expected to spend an entire moon cycle away from them. He doesn’t know how he’ll cope but he’s excited to say the least. He’s going to meet some of those shiny iridescent beetles Laura couldn’t stop talking about and he’s going to go with his adoptive colony to raid a picnic like he’s heard humans have (Food everywhere! Free for the taking so long as you’re not too greedy and too many of them don’t go for the same piece of fruit!) and he’s ready to finally see if his weird Uncle Peter was lying to him about those bugs that start life as squishy, wiggly blobs but then wrap themselves up in their spit and come out with magical wings having grown from nowhere. 

Derek’s foster colony is the McCall colony. The farm’s human caretaker Deaton drops him off at the front of the entrance to their hill (which, despite the lesson from Peter he still doesn’t get. Why is it a hill if it’s underground?) and stands back to make sure Derek is greeted properly and taken in without fuss. An ant looking younger than Derek with a friendly face emerges from the ground, waving his antennae around in greeting. 

“Hey I’m Scott! You must be Derek,” the new ant says cheerfully, stepping forward to say hi properly as he does so. 

“Yeah that’s me,” Derek replies and allows Scott to touch his antennae to his face, doing the same in return. 

“Well come on, lemme show you around!” And with that Scott leads Derek away to begin the newest installment of his life.

-

“That’s my sort of mom who is technically my sister but is way older than me and saved me from getting eaten by a lizard once, you can call her Melissa. That’s Allison, she’s my girlfriend. That’s Liam and Mason, and- dude! What’s up, I’m showing the new guy around!” A new ant comes crashing into Scott from the side feelers a-flailing.

 "I’m Stiles!“ the new ant - Stiles? - cries. “You’re a farm ant? So was my dad, it’s why we have a different name than everyone else here. I’ve never met a farm ant, I mean I know your sister stayed with us but the colony is big and I never met her. Is it true that you guys eat the little ones for food when things get scarce? I could never ask my dad that because he would get mad although, I suppose that is offensive. Sorry dude. My dad won’t ever tell me about life on the farm and I’ve heard so many rumors. Like, you don’t have a queen? How is that possible? Do you guys just…die out? Oh hey I don’t even know your name, sorry man.”

 Derek reels from the onslaught of words and insulting questions. Is this what the city does to ants? Strips them of any decency or manners and tells them it’s okay to ask someone you’ve never met invasive questions?

 “We… we have a human caretaker who keeps us healthy and keeps the farm stocked,” Derek hedges, unsure if Stiles is going to start rapid-fire interrogating him again. “I’m Derek, no we don’t sacrifice my younger siblings to eat, that’s counter-productive to staying alive and we’re not cannibals.”

 Stiles looks disappointed. “Well then, I guess I better let Scotty finish giving you the grand tour. I’ll get out of your way to go do, y’know, things. Catch you later bro.” And with that he turns around and leaves.

 “Sorry about him,” Scott grins. “He’s my best bro, but he definitely comes on a little strong. Anyways, how about I finish showing you around?”

-

It’s Derek’s first night away from home and he’s finding he can’t sleep without the rustling of his sisters nearby or the way his uncle will murmur as he dreams. He slips out from the chamber Scott told him he could call his until he leaves and makes his way through the tunnels until he emerges at the mouth of the hill. Steeling himself for potential predators, he steps outside. 

The McCall hill is located at the base of a tree near an open field (”It’s a park! Humans take their kids and their lunches here all the time. Avoid the kids, go for the lunches,” Scott had said). He ambles over until he reaches the grass but decides not to venture in there yet, at least not alone. He’s heard stories from his parents about the kind of monsters that hide out in the grass waiting to eat unsuspecting ants such as himself and he’s not quite ready to get eaten yet. He still has to see the flea circus and taste a candy cane before he’s comfortable with that idea.

 Derek settles down in his spot by the lawn and stares out, thinking, wondering. He knows he has the choice to stay out here in the big world if he wants and he knows he hasn’t really seen any of it yet, just the areas immediately surrounding the hill, but the idea of never seeing his family again is terrifying him. In just one walk-through of the colony, he saw more faces than he has in his entire life combined and he’s met more ants than he could even fathom having time to talk to in one day. Laura and Peter and his father all talked of their time away like it was some incredible experience that shapes who you’ll be for the rest of your life, but Derek is just feeling overwhelmed. He assumes it’s due to his natural introversion.

 A sound from behind pulls him out of his thoughts and he turns to find Stiles, the overly exuberant ant from that morning emerging from the ground. Stiles looks up and seems startled to see him. “Hey,” Stiles greets. “Sorry for earlier today. I get excited sometimes and my brain to mouth filter goes whoosh. What are you doing out here?”

 “Couldn’t sleep. It’s too quiet not sleeping piled on top of everyone else,” Derek says. Stiles nods understandingly before coming to stand next to Derek. A slightly awkward silence falls over the two of them and Derek looks inquisitively over at Stiles. “What are you doing out here?”

 “I don’t sleep a lot. My dad says it’s because I’m so high energy all the time that my brain doesn’t know when to shut itself off.” Stiles wiggles his antennae around nonchalantly before an idea apparently seems to come to him. He faces his body towards Derek and asks, “Hey what did you want to do while you’re out exploring the world? You know, if it’s the city you’re looking to discover, you’re talking to a born and raised city boy.”

 Derek is once again puzzled by this strange ant in front of him. First he comes in and starts throwing questions at breakneck speed and now he’s offering to show Derek what life as a city ant is like? “Won’t that be dangerous to do at night with just two of us?”

 Stiles shakes his head, laughing. “Sure but we don’t have to leave the park. I’ve been all around this place by myself multiple times and I’m still here in one piece. We don’t have to do anything dangerous, but neither of us can sleep and the night is young. Come on Derek, you left the farm for a taste of the real world, so take a bite.”

 Derek knows he’s going to regret this. He knows that he should wait until tomorrow morning when Scott and Melissa and some of the others are going to take him out safely, in a group. He knows that trusting strange ants is the first way to get yourself killed according to Big City 101, yet he finds himself saying, “Sure.”

 Stiles nods and waves his antennae around brightly. “Awesome! Hey man, what’s the highest you’ve ever climbed?”

 “Um… Deaton sets us on the windowsill sometimes so the second story of a house I guess?” Stiles looks mildly scandalized at this.

 “Dude, let’s climb the tree. You’re going to be blown away by the view. It’s so much better than looking through two panes of glass into a backyard two stories down. Come on!” With that, Stiles marches away, back towards the tree. Derek scrambles to keep up and watches as Stiles starts to climb.

 “Aren’t there spiders on the tree? And birds? Are we going to get eaten if I follow you up there?” Derek asks dubiously. Stiles just laughs at him.

 “Sure there are, but no we won’t get eaten. Just stay alert and follow my lead. Come on slowpoke, start climbing!” Derek eyes the tree for a moment longer but decides that if he’s out of the farm, he might as well start living like it and begins to climb up after Stiles.

 Stiles is almost a foot ahead and has started making his way down a branch, all the way to the very end, so Derek follows. When he gets to where Stiles is and looks out, he stops dead. Stretched out below them for as far as his eye can see is endless grass and trees, the playground for the human children, the asphalt beyond, city lights shining on the horizon. Under one of the picnic benches near the blacktop, Derek can see a stray cat settled down for the night. When he looks directly below them he sees what should probably be the entrance to the hill but is so far away that it’s impossible to distinguish. It’s all breathtaking.

 Stiles watches him take it all in for the first time, looking content. “Pretty impressive huh? I remember my first time up here was right after I almost got burned by a human kid playing with a magnifying glass and I ran up the tree to get away. I’ve been coming up here a lot since then. It’s prettiest when the sun is rising though because they turn the sprinklers on and you can see the rainbows the water makes over the grass.”

 Derek wants to see the sprinklers make rainbows over the grass. Derek wants to see everything about the world. Derek wants to know as much about the world as Stiles seems to.

 “Hey do you know if it’s true that there are bugs that start off as super weird looking and squishy, wrap themselves up and grow wings from nowhere? My uncle told me that those things are real but that can’t be can it?” Derek asks Stiles. Stiles chuckles and nods.

“Yep, those are butterflies. They start off as caterpillars, wrap themselves up in silk, and come out as these beautiful creatures with wings. They’re pretty ditzy as a species though, I wouldn’t get my hopes up if you want to meet one.”

Derek is amazed. The world is amazing. Derek asks, “Are there really beetles that change colors in the sun then? My sister was so excited about them but I thought she was exaggerating.”

“A lot of beetles do that. Beetles are pretty hit or miss though, sounds like your sister met some good ones. The really pretty ones are usually lots of fun but sometimes they’ll try to eat you. It’s worth the risk though. No one can get down like a beetle can get down. They’re second only to crickets, who again will probably to eat you, but get them after they’ve already eaten and damn. They know how to have a good time. They make their own music and everything.”

Derek can’t believe any of this. It’s one thing to hear about how incredible life outside of the farm can be from his family who regale tales of their moon cycle away and it’s another entirely to witness firsthand just how vast the world really is and to have someone who lives this life every day speak about it as if it’s nothing.

They stay up there on the tree branch for a while longer, Derek asking questions as they come to him and Stiles answering as best he can (“Do you guys ever get raided by nearby colonies?” “No? We’re still ants, not ancient warriors.”  "Is it true that sometimes your hill floods and you have to live above ground?“ "Yeah, but that doesn’t happen very often.” “Do you even know all the people in the colony? There’s so many.” “For the most part, yeah. We all recognize each other’s scent at the very least.” “Do you guys really go down in the sewers when it gets hot or was my uncle actually lying to me that time?” “Your uncle was definitely lying to you that time. Do you…even know what a sewer is?” “…No?”), but eventually they do get sleepy.

“Hey we should probably head down soon,” Stiles suggests, “You don’t want to fall asleep up here or you actually might become a bird’s breakfast. Plus you’ve gotta meet up with Scott and all them tomorrow morning. Gotta be well rested for your big day.” 

Derek agrees and the two begin their descent back down the tree. Once they’re at the mouth of the tunnels, Stiles turns to Derek and offers, “Any time while you’re here, if you want to come explore at night or have questions or just want to listen to me ramble, come find me. You’re pretty cool Derek. For being a farm boy.”

Derek nods and walks forward to entwine his feelers with Stiles’s. If he holds on a second longer than is standard, so be it. Derek follows Stiles down into the main tunnel and they part ways at a fork. Derek makes his way back to his chamber feeling light. Maybe this won’t be so bad. He still has a lot of reservations, but after tonight his excitement is far outweighing his trepidations.

Derek falls asleep with excitement thrumming beneath his exoskeleton. Tomorrow he’s going to see the world. Tomorrow he’s going to conquer the big city.


End file.
